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Australia could see the significant return of babies with congenital rubella: German measles. This conclusion comes from analysis of one of the world's longest running databases collecting the rubella antibody status of women. Australia could see the significant return of babies with congenital rubella: German measles. This conclusion comes from analysis of one of the world's longest running databases collecting the rubella antibody status of women. Congenital rubella is a terrible but preventable affliction which can cause brain damage, deafness and blindness. These days boys and girls receive rubella immunisation twice but despite this, there are gaps showing up in this Melbourne survey, which has performed about 75,000 rubella antibody tests over 25 years. Women who were born in developing countries and missed out on immunisation tend to have low levels of antibodies, especially if they are from China, the Philippines and Vietnam. The other trend is that Australian born women appear to have declining levels, suggesting that the immunisation may lose its effectiveness as time goes on. And the last group, which has emerged over the past few years, are locally born women who have no antibodies - suggesting their parents have not had them immunised at all. The answer, suggests one of the researchers, is to test women - especially if they have migrated - before they decide to fall pregnant so that they can have a booster if required.
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